ABC and NBC Legend Is Quitting TV: Read Cynthia McFadden's Farewell Message

Cynthia McFadden joined NBC in 2014.

By Ashley Turner

Cynthia McFadden, a seasoned television news journalist who has held prominent roles such as co-anchoring ABC News' Nightline and serving as a senior investigative correspondent for NBC News, has decided to step down from the network.

"Today, some personal news: after a wonderful ten years at NBC, next week I will report my last story here," McFadden said in a May 17 Instagram post. 

With a career spanning over three decades, McFadden has had the opportunity to travel around the world to investigate humanitarian crises and human slavery, as well as examine issues related to justice and national security. After working as an executive producer for Fred Friendly's Media and Society seminars at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, she joined ABC News in February 1994 as a legal correspondent.

When Ted Koppel stepped down from his founding stint as the face of Nightline in October 2005, she was taken on as the show's co-anchor. McFadden occasionally filled in for him to cover lifestyle stories or interview celebrities on the late-night news program. In addition, she reported on O.J. Simpson's and Martha Stewart's high-profile legal cases.

McFadden, 67, then would join NBC in 2014. "It was a big decision to leave ABC after 20 years — to give up the 'Nightline' anchor chair and hit the road. But the opportunity at NBC to dig deeply into some of the world's most complex problems was just too good to resist," McFadden said in her note. 

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"I am so happy I took the leap. These have been some of the most gratifying and productive years in a long career. NBC encouraged me to tell complex and nuanced stories — often about injustice and corruption, especially about the troubles children face — from rural Mississippi to the Triangle of death in the Central African Republic — from the Red Cloud reservation to the mica mines of Madagascar and the mothers of Camp Lejeune. From the American Arctic and the Rohingya camps to the Peruvian gold mines and cancer alley.  Sometimes the stories led to hearings, federal investigations or policy changes. Sometimes we were able to give a voice to someone who had never had one."

Her journalism work has won various awards, including a Peabody, Emmy, Foreign Press and others. "It is hard to leave a job you love but this is the right time- I have a list of things I have often said I wanted to do "someday," McFadden concluded her note. "Well, someday is now, while I am still raring to go— and playing with a relatively full deck. Maybe I'll even surprise you (and myself!)."

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